Surrealism's Bad Rap

Description

Publisher's Weekly has said that Oakland based writer Garrett Caples is 'straddling the line between a Syd Barrett stream-of-sweet-nothings and the bachelor-machine eroticism of Duchamp.' Of his work, the poet Jeff Clark was once heard to say: 'Caples is a polymath.' He is also, in no particular order, an essayist (he's published long, sometimes notorious evaluations of Barbara Guest, Will Alexander, John Yau, Joe Brainard, Barrett Watten, Eliot Weinberger, Charles Bernstein, among others); with his partner Anna Naruta he's the maker of films, documentaries, music videos; with Naruta he's also the publisher of Kolourmeim Press; recently he produced a CD of boogified electronica entitled Lee Marvin; he's fashioned liner notes for a handful of indie rock albums; he's a scholar of Joyce and of Stein; more interestingly, he's a connoisseur of hip-hop (his column, 'The Philistine's Guide,' is a mainstay of Ninevolt Magazine, a bi-weekly music publication); he's a love poet, photographer, and collage-maker. His erotica has been anthologized. . He's been and likely will remain, as long as he's here--or there--a student of radical Oakland politics and culture.